Wow, already in March (19/3/2025 to be precise!) A great deal has happened since my last 2024 update. The new engine is fitted and runs beautifully, i am still running it in, 92 miles covered so far.

Here is a link to the new engine’s build – in case you missed it 🙂

What has been good 🙂

The car starts, drives and stops. The engine sounds lovely and strong.

What has been bad 🙁

Fuel pump

My first drive out I managed 12 miles and the car stopped dead.. the fuel pump had died. So a very expensive trailer home was required. It turned out that my Bosch 044 fuel pump was actually not an 044 but one with half the capacity!.  So I had to buy a Bosch 200, which is an uprated version of the now obsolete 044.

Wastegate

The Ali Express 44mm wastegate died.. after one drive it started leaking. So i have now replaced that with a genuine Tial 44mm V44 MVR V-Band wastegate.

Gearbox

While I was still digging around inside the engine I took the oppurtunity to swap the gearbox back to the petrol box from the diesel one. That meant fitting another universal LSD.

Turbo

The brand new Garret G30 660 turbo has broken. Yup, I took the car for a drive and when the engine got hot I could see white smoke coming out of the car, at idle it looked like a steam engine. to prove it wasnt the engine I removed the turbo and converted the car to NA, no smoke. When the engine got hot you could actually see the oil seeping through the hot side. I have sent the turbo back to ProRace and they in turn have sent it back to someone for testing. I have been told it will take 12 weeks!

As an interim measure I bought a cheap (really cheap £100)  turbo from ebay. It is a GT3076. This turbo came with a 4 bolt flange to the down pipe, my down pipe has a V-Band. So I had to cut the flange off the new turbo and weld a V-Band to it, it worked, it looks good and it doesn’t leak 🙂 The £100 Chinese turbo doesn’t smoke when the engine gets hot!

I also fitted a Turbosmart 40 psi oil pressure regulator, OPR. This is just to make sure that the oil pressure isn’t an issue. both the Garret and the GT3076 have restrictors built in.

I also fitted a Turbosmart 40 psi oil pressure regulator, OPR. This is just to make sure that the oil pressure isn’t an issue. both the Garret and the GT3076 have restrictors built in.

Seats

I still don’t have my seats back… I bought a pair of temporary bucket seats, but they are so uncomfortable I would rather not drive the car. My seats are off being upholstered, but hopefully I will get them back in a week or two.

12th May 2025

My Turbosmart OPR failed 🙁 This cost me a turbo, I was driving home from a car getting the car Mot’d and i heard this screaming noise coming from the engine; when i got home I checked the compressor wheel and it was moving all over the place, when i removed the turbo is saw there was no oil inside… Turbo replaced, and OPR removed and sent back.

I have instead fitted a little turbo oil filter

I do now have my seats, they are much nicer than what i had before, so for that i am grateful. I am still waiting for my Garrett to come back, and the car has developed a nasty oil leak from somewhere on the oil filter side of the engine. So when I do the next filter/oil change I will have to strip it all down to see where its coming from 🙁